


backpedal

by cthlulu



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alcohol, Angst, Aubrey and Ned centric, Drinking Games, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Inspired by Poetry, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Run-On Sentences, apparently i only write poetry inspired pieces now so, based off of backpedal by olivia gatwood, blood mention, excessive use of the word 'and', for the drama, pre-episode 28
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-19 18:24:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20214244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cthlulu/pseuds/cthlulu
Summary: “and i think that means i must be the champion of quarters.”post-episode 28, Aubrey dealing with Ned’s death. i’m sad i miss ned and i like poetry so this happened





	backpedal

**Author's Note:**

> this poem slaps!!! i hope i did it justice. if you want to watch the original poem, here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUdYVYgSEds&t=24s  
btw I own nothing but any typos you find. enjoy!

It is a Saturday night. Amnesty Lodge is bright and warm and at a corner table sits a group of friends. They are loud, drunk; laughing obnoxiously as they slam back shots of cheap vodka from the liquor store just inside town. Their banter is mixed with drunken hiccups and yelps of pain, raucous laughter and the quaint sounds of the lodge around them.

It’s a Saturday night and Aubrey Little is playing Quarters with the boys in the back of amnesty lodge. She is the only girl amongst four other boys and she is winning. She is a girl, she is drunk; she is winning. Her face is flushed, her throat raw from the burn of cheap alcohol and there’s blood on the table. Blood leaking from her knuckles and onto her jeans, because every time she misses a shot Ned gets to bounce a quarter off her knuckles-- now, they are raw and dripping but she doesn’t care because it’s a _ night _ with _ the boys _ and she’s _ drunk _ and _ having fun. _

Everyone else’s knuckles are bloody too and Mama’s gonna have a fit in the morning if they’re too drunk to clean up the stains.

Aubrey slams down the shot glass and it cracks up the side and now, the game is about who is willing to risk shards in the gullet. Duck offers a pack of newports to anyone who will cut up their insides and Aubrey doesn’t even really want the cigarettes but she needs to prove that she’s not afraid of blood- another part of being a girl. The last and final part of being the only girl is losing when you have let yourself win too much, so Aubrey hisses and curses at her abused knuckles as Ned slices her open and another quarter bounces off the table and leaves a small bloodstain in its wake.

Thirty minutes later and Aubrey is being dragged up to her room by her wrists. Through the alcohol clouding her senses she can hear someone, Ned, complaining about blood on the hardwood, a girl in the lobby staining everything she touches and Aubrey laughs hollowly at the unintentional accuracy of the statement. Then, before she blacks out a thought flickers and dies like a match in the cold: _ I must be the champion of Quarters. _

Ned is a walking contradiction, Aubrey later thinks. Two stereotypes fighting against each other in one body-- The kind of man who sleeps with a gun under his pillow instead of a woman next to it. The kind of man who only screams when he’s underwater, who holds people like crowbars, who can flick a quarter off of anyone’s knuckles and make them bleed for a drink. Yet, the kind of man who drags a drunk girl back to her room to make sure she gets home safely. The kind of man who writes a letter to his kids before skipping town, whose kids aren’t _ actually _ his kids but his too-young coworkers might as well be his anyway. The kind of man who skips town because he thinks it’s the right thing to do.

Quarters with the boys was not an uncommon occurrence, especially on Saturday nights but Ned just _ fucking admitted-- _ Aubrey doesn’t want to look at him anymore, doesn’t want to _ play _ with him anymore, so she goes to the gate, goes _ through _ the gate and she does not hear Ned’s cry.

There are no Quarters that night. Dani is not-- not _ herself _ and Pigeon doesn’t know what in God’s name that creature is but it’s _ not Dani _ and she _ needs to save Ned _ , to save him from whatever that monster is and the shot rings out and blood blooms across Ned’s back, divine payback for a million wrongs and _ Aubrey is a world away laughing with a friend _ and Ned is cold and the stars are beautiful and then they are gone and so is he.

  
There is no funeral. Aubrey didn’t know Ned _ like that _ : somber or regretful, heartbroken or reserved. Amnesty lodge is locked down and sterilized and no one can go in-- Like maybe the agents are afraid of what they’ll find, memories and ghosts alike. Like maybe they won’t know what to do, like they can’t decontaminate _ home. _Like maybe none of them can get rid of the blood.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed it!! kudos and comments are more than welcome. hmu on tumblr @cold-egg


End file.
